A new law is intended to give all workers the legal right to request a predictable working pattern.

The Government has supported Blackpool South MP Scott Benton’s Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Bill, which will apply to all workers and employees including agency workers.

If a worker’s existing working pattern lacks certainty in terms of the hours they work, the times they work or if it is a fixed term contract for less than 12 months, they will be able to make a formal application to change their working pattern to make it more predictable.

This Bill gives people a right to ask their employers to consider requests.

Subject to parliamentary approval, all workers and employees will have this new right once it comes into force, however, they must first have worked for their employer a set period before they make their application. This period will be set out in regulations and is expected to be 26 weeks. Given the proposals aim to support those with unpredictable contracts, workers will not have had to have worked continuously during that period.

Employers do have the option to refuse a request for a more predictable working pattern on specific grounds, such as the burden of additional costs to make changes, or there being insufficient work at times when the employee proposes to work. Workers will be able to make up to two requests a year.

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Under plans set out by the Government on 1 February, it will seek to regulate a broad suite of cryptoasset activities, consistent with its approach to traditional finance.

There is no universal definition of a cryptoasset or related terms such as a digital asset or virtual asset, but there is increasing consensus on the basic elements of the definition in UK and overseas legislation, and in global standards. The Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022 (FS&M Bill) includes the following definition of cryptoasset for the UK’s financial services regulatory framework, to be introduced into FSMA:

“Cryptoasset” means any cryptographically secured digital representation of value or contractual rights that— (a) can be transferred, stored or traded electronically, and (b) that uses technology supporting the recording or storage of data (which may include distributed ledger technology).”

The new rules, which are now subject to consultation, will place responsibility on cryptoasset trading venues for defining the detailed content requirements for admission and disclosure documents.

The proposals will strengthen the rules around financial intermediaries and custodians – which have responsibility for facilitating transactions and safely storing customer assets.

As part of this approach, the consultation will seek views on improving market integrity and consumer protection by setting out a proposed cryptoasset market abuse regime.

Proposals are centred around a number of important cryptoasset activities – including exchange activities, custody activities and lending activities, which the Government is intending to bring into the regulatory perimeter for financial services.

For each activity, the consultation sets out key design features of the regime covering themes such as prudential requirements, data reporting, consumer protection, location policy and operational resilience.

The consultation paper also proposes regimes for a range of cross-cutting issues which apply across cryptoasset activities and business models, including market abuse and cryptoasset issuance and disclosures.

In addition, to address industry concerns about the small number of Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) authorised cryptoasset firms who can issue their own promotions, HM Treasury is also introducing a time limited exemption. Cryptoasset businesses that are registered with the FCA for anti-money laundering purposes will be allowed to issue their own promotions, while the broader cryptoasset regulatory regime is being introduced.

The consultation will close on 30 April 2023, after which, the Government will consider feedback and work to set out its consultation response. Once legislation is laid, the FCA will consult on its detailed rules for the sector.

Note that the Government is also currently legislating in the FS&M Bill to introduce a regime that will allow for the regulation of fiat-backed stablecoins which are used for payments, similar to that for other payment methods given that these stablecoins have the potential to become widely used as a form of payment.

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The latest Guidance documents clarify when HMRC will issue the trustees with a penalty charge for not registering a trust or not keeping the entry up to date, how to ask for a review or appeal the charge and how to pay it.

Our earlier Bulletin explained the penalty system for not registering a trust or not keeping it up to date. This followed HMRC’s announcement of the level of fine being set at £5,000 but also stating that they will not penalise trustees for first-time offences.

The new Guidance notes now have more detail of the penalty regime. There are three Guidance notes dealing with:

• HMRC (when a penalty will be issued);
• HMRC (reviews and appeals);
• HMRC (how to pay).

The guidance confirms that if you’re a trustee of a trust within the scope of the trust registration service (TRS), and you either fail to register your trust or fail to keep the information held on the TRS up to date, HMRC can charge you a fixed penalty of £5,000. They will not charge any interest on penalties.

However, given that registering a trust is a new requirement, HMRC recognise that trustees may not be familiar with the process. They will, therefore, not charge a penalty if they find out that you’ve failed to register or to maintain a trust, as long as:

• this was not deliberate behaviour;
• you take action to correct this within the time limit HMRC has set.

HMRC will only charge the trustees a penalty if the failure to register or update was deliberate.

HMRC will decide on whether to charge penalties on a case-by-case basis.

Upon receipt of a penalty letter from HMRC, the trustees can simply pay the penalty charge or if they do not agree with a penalty charge, they can:

• ask HMRC to review their decision; or
• make an appeal to a tribunal against a decision.

A review request must be sent directly to HMRC and must reach it within 30 days of the date the penalty letter is issued. HMRC’s reply will normally be sent within 45 days of receipt of the taxpayer’s request. HMRC will not try to collect the penalty while it is reviewing the decision.

Taxpayers who do not want to ask for a review, or whose request for a review is rejected, can appeal to a tribunal within 30 days of the date of the penalty decision letter or the letter announcing that a review has been rejected. In the latter case, however, HMRC reserves the right to collect payment of the penalty while the appeal is in.

Comment

So far, we are not aware of any penalties having been issued for failure to register or failure to keep the Register up to date. Nevertheless, given the detail of the Guidance notes, this is clearly something that has been on HMRC’s mind and indicates they are preparing to use their powers. Trustees who have not yet registered their registrable trust on the TRS should be reminded of their obligation to do so. New registrable trusts have 90 days from the trust’s creation to register. The original deadline for existing trusts was 1 September 2022. Ideally, trustees should not wait for a nudge letter from HMRC before registering. Prompt registration will avoid having to explain the reasons for any failures and of course the risk of penalties.

Services available from Technical Connection

TRS Mezzanine service

If you require further guidance registering trusts, there are the following resources available:

On Techlink, we have created a series of documents and videos to help you guide your clients through the registration service, and these are accessible here. 

In addition to the online guides, we provide a comprehensive TRS Mezzanine service which can you book here.

This is an opportunity for either you or one of your support team to receive step by step guidance on how to create a Government Gateway Organisation ID and step by step guidance on how to complete HMRC’s Trust Registration Form. Through screen sharing over Zoom one of our consultants will talk you through the completion process.

Additionally, you can choose to have the Mezzanine with one of your lead trustee clients attending.  You should include their name and email address on the booking form. This Mezzanine incurs a fee of £60 (£50 plus VAT).

Please note that these Mezzanines are specifically designed to help guide you or your client through the administration of the TRS, as such the attending consultant will not be available to answer technical questions regarding the trust. 

If you have a technical question about a trust, our ASK service is available as an add on subscription to Techlink.

Book your appointment here.

TRS Agency Service

As part of our support framework surrounding the trust registration requirements, we are now providing a TRS Agency service. Acting on behalf of your client we can register the trust ourselves. The use of our Agency Services incurs a fee of £200 for up to 60 minutes on receipt of Technical Connection’s invoice.

To book the TRS Agency Service or for further details and any other queries, please contact via email at ben.ward@technicalconnection.co.uk

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The Government has published a summary of responses to the consultation on raising standards in tax advice: protecting customers claiming tax repayments.

The Low Income Tax Reform Group and HMRC have previously published warnings about the use of agents to claim tax rebates, in particular High Volume Agents (HVAs). HVAs are private companies that deal with large numbers of clients and make requests for repayments, or submit returns that generate repayments, on the taxpayer’s behalf. Please see our earlier Bulletin.

In June 2022, the Government published a consultation to consider ways to better protect taxpayers from repayment agents who take excessive amounts of their tax repayments. Please see our Bulletin on this. Following the responses, the Government says that it will take further steps to tackle the issues outlined in the consultation, including:

1. Legislate to render void assignments of income tax repayments;
2. Immediately introduce new transparency requirements for agents in the HMRC Standard for Agents;
3. Explore introducing mandatory pre-contractual disclosure forms, and strengthen checks on repayment agents;
4. Undertake further work to strengthen the evidence that a claim has been made with a taxpayer’s consent before processing it so we can improve the way in which taxpayers authorise their agent;
5. Introduce a new requirement for repayment agents to register with HMRC as part of wider work exploring options to enhance the regulatory framework for tax advice and tax services.

You can read the full responses here.

Comment

Clients need to be made aware of the potential of this type of fraudulent activity. This might also provide an opportunity to remind clients how to make a tax reclaim from HMRC, in particular higher rate tax on a (relief at source) pension contribution made by a higher rate taxpayer. Please see HMRC’s guidance on how to claim a tax refund.

This is an example of one of the recent news bulletins that was posted on our Techlink website.  Signing up to Techlink will give you access to original articles, like this, on a daily basis.  Techlink also provides you with a comprehensive (and searchable) library of information, daily bulletins on developments of relevance to the industry, multimedia learning and professional development tools. Techlink can also be your ‘gateway’ for accessing consultancy through our ‘ASK’ service which enables you to receive responses to your technical questions from our highly trained technical consultants.

You can sign up for a free 30 day trial of Techlink at anytime.  For more information go to www.techlink.co.uk